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Steven Martin Bickling, 48, of Baltimore, has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison, followed by 15 years of supervised release for coercion and enticement of a minor to produce child pornography.
It all began in 2018, when, according to his guilty plea, Bickling visited a website that offered live chat rooms with foreign women.
After hearing children in the background of chat rooms, prosecutors say that Bickling asked a female performer to show her daughter nude for $50, which she accepted.
The performer then posed her prepubescent daughter on video chat as Bickling masturbated.
It was not a one-time thing officials said, as Bickling estimated that that conduct happened 12 to 15 times within a two-year period.
On Aug. 19, 2020, federal and city investigators executed a warrant at Bickling’s Baltimore home, where he readily admitted that he possessed child porn videos of children between the ages of 5 and 12 saved on his laptop.
While reviewing Bickling's email account, investigators also uncovered several conversations in which he solicited images or videos of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
In one conversation, Bickling wrote, "I watch a lot of child prn (sic) . . . I like when they cry,” and other chats dating back to 2018, showed him soliciting live video sessions of adult men engaging in explicit sexual activity with their younger sisters or nieces.
Officials said that in total, investigators recovered a total of 21 images and 50 videos that showed minors, including prepubescent minors, engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Bickling also advised investigators that he paid for access to a restricted child pornography website.
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